The Final review score Really let me down... this game is a 9.5 i'm sorry. It's near perfect. It's just a damn fun RPG.

WTF is with the "bumpy" JP translation? Can we sight examples??? The EMO comment seemed fitting enough and i'd like to know how we verified it's not on par with the original dialogue... wait we probably didn't.

Tales has always been a bit "fun" with the dialogue. This game BLOWS Symphonia out of the water but it scored less... and only .6 higher than Enchanted Arms?!? You're kidding right IGN?

The media needs to quit being afraid to rate RPG's high. I want someone to review guitar hero who hates rock n roll like some outlets that have guys who Hate JRPG's reviewing them... it's a travesty while this review is a nice summation notice the lack of negatives but still gets only a 8.2

Compare this highly positive review to the Shark attack on Infinite Undiscovery and we ONLY GET a 1 point difference? WTF?

Visually this game is FINE, maybe not as vibrant as Eternal Sonata, but Eternal Sonata had stagnent enviroments that felt dead, even the towns just felt wallpaper'd and DEAD. This game is much more alive.

I like the context of the review but we're being too picky. This game is the Pinnacle of the Tales Series, it's a shame this gem isn't getting scored appropriatly due to the name not being "Final Fantasy Vesperia".

Yes FF games get boosts, if you think that's BS you're lying to yourself. FF8 was a POS. Dirge of the Ceberus = Trash. And FF7 PSP was VERY medicore.

TOV is one of the best rpg's ive played.
Dub work: no one sucks, some might not like Karol's voice, but he's a 10 yr old. Yuri/judith/raven have great voices, everyone else just pretty good.
Gameplay: one of the few games where grinding can be fun! during your OPTIONAL grinding( as if you plan and play good you can beat most obstacles without grinding. I once spent an hour grinding only do discover once I beat the boss that the 2.5 levels everyone gained didnt compare to the strategy and personal experience I gained. With that experience, I could've beat the boss without leveling! you create your own combos as you play, like for example:
Estelle: begin casting angel ring
Rita: .5 seconds after estelle begin casting tractor beam
Yuri(me):get in the middle of angel rings target zone
angel ring activates, does damage, brings all enemies to a single spot. yuri uses that stick the sword in the ground and energy circle appears move ( sorry I forgot the name)
then tractor beam activates and sucks all the enemies into the air and slams em into the ground,
then yuri does one more energy slam while all enemies are in range.
I made up that combo, and Im sure you'll come up with your own with practice!
doing things your own way as opposed to the way everyone esle does it is part of the fun!
It's pretty long, Im at 35+ hours, id say 6-7/10ths done( I havent beaten it so Im just geussing) and I only did about 1 hour of forced grinding total.
Its not childish by any means, It could've been all "follow your heart! Never give up! believe in friendship!" and stuff, but it takes a more mature approach. When estelle is forced to make hard decisions no one feeds her the "trust ur hart and friendZ" business. Yuri just goes "you need to make a descision, stay with us or go back." He's not all tied up in a love story, and its refreshing. he cares about everyone, but isn't clingy or anything.
And its got its fair share of tinkering in the menus to maximize characters. U can completely ignore this and just use "TEH MOU$T P0WURFUL WEPUNZ" and prob. u'll beat the game with enough leveling. But its very rewarding to have characters do well at low levels by good skill uses.
It's a game u can play in front of older company and not be deemed childish
As you can tell I like this game. Im not saying its the best rpg ever, but I played TOS and I like this better ( and I liked TOS ALOT! beat it 2.6 times, over 160 hours spent)
ps the armor doesnt affect personal appearance, only weapons and special items like hats/glasses/ninja scroll XD

Really just a great game. Combat is fun even 20 hrs in and the story keeps unfolding. I wouldn't say the story is great but it's decnt and what i would expect from a namco/bandai game. VO work is actually good for the english cast though i would've still enjoyed a Jap track. Def worth the time investment.

The "L" word gets thrown around way too much...and I won't be the one to change that trend. I LOVE this game. It is the perfect game for those that love anime, enjoy action games, and are a fan of role playing games. I love building up your character and stuff...but have always hated the turn based style of fighting. I agree with the reviewer here in that the graphics could and should be so much more especially on the 360, but that didn't detract from my experience.

The story is the main draw for me. As a fan of anime I love how there are always cliffhanger endings that keep you wanting more. I also love how the characters grow and develop as the stories progress. This is true of Tales of Vesperia. You can really feel the characters growing, from the way they interact with each other...even to the post battle animations (Estelle is always in party for comic relief). Also as a fan of anime I cannot watch it unless the voices are in Japanese...no exceptions. American voices just don't do it for me...they can't seem to get the same emotion that the Japanese actors do. I was a bit disappointed that they did not have a Japanese language track. It is understandable because there is a TON of dialogue. That being said...the voice acting in this game is pretty awesome...minus Karol...I always hate it when they do voices for kids. It feels like I'm rolling around with the Teen Titans.

Anyway, I digress. Such a great game...everything this reviewer says is true...but I would personally bump it up a notch to about 8.7 - 9.0 rating just for the story alone.

I also play Final Fantasy XI: Online.. and honestly? FFXI > FFXII period. FFXII was made to let those who were unfortunate to not play the MMO, have a taste of what it was like, and it was executed horribly.

MMOs, SPECIFICALLY FF11, are huge grinds and wastes of time. Final Fantasy 11 is even more so a timesync. You sir, do not know good games.

Explain why Final Fantasy XII receive a perfect score from Play, the direct descendant of Diehard Gamefan, a perfect score from Famitsu -- the most prestigous gaming magazine in Japan, and a 95 and beat out Guitar Hero and Okami for Playstation 2 Game of the Year 2006 from IGN, Rhoic.

I'm sure he can't explain any of these things. He seems to be out of tune with what most gamers think.

Well Chobits22, it could have something to do with the fact that Fable II has some pretty decent replayability with it. You could easily play through that game 3 times and have 3 very different characters because of the actions and choices you make. If they based a games "lasting appeal" souly on how many hours it takes to beat, many games would score poorly in that area due to their play time.

How did Final Fantasy XII get such good reviews? That game sucked! A few play sessions and I was like "f*** this!" The battle system was the crappiest gameplay ever in any game in the history of gaming. I'm probably not going to get Final Fantasy XIII, because the battle system is supposed to be similar. It's possible to survive a game with a crappy story if it has good gameplay, but not the other way around. Infinite Undiscovery is an example crappy strory with good gameplay, and I'm currently having a blast with it. Final Fantasy XII is an example of good story with crappy gameplay, and I couldn't stand to play any more than an hour of it. FFXII killed Final Fantasy for me. That's why I love the Tales series: they don't f*** with the battle system. They add stuff to it, but it usually works and doesn't destroy the battle system. Tales of Vesperia is the best game in the series. They added so much to the traditional Tales real-time battles(burst artes, fatal strikes, altered artes), and it worked. I can't wait for Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, which is coming out for the Wii in a little over a week, and the next main entry in the series, said to be coming out on the Wii as well in 2009.

why are gamers so afraid of change i think tht the main reason alot of ff fans didnt like 12 because it was different. No wonder developers are afriad to make an original idea because it most likely wont sell(except in the case of portal but you think it would have sold as a stand alone game?).

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The fact that FF12 was different isn't the reason it sucked. It sucked because the battle system was a boring piece of sh**! I couldn't stand playing it. It felt like I was playing the game as punishment for some terrible crime. I gave my copy of FF12 to Gamestop along with a bunch of other games to get money for an Xbox 360 so I could get Vesperia. And guess what happened after I decided to do that: More awesome RPGs started being anounced for the Xbox 360! Infinite Undiscovery...The Last Remnant...It was like Microsoft was welcoming me to the 360-owning community! That was one of the best decisions I've made in my entire life.

FF13 looks cool, but if the battle system is anything like 12, it's not going to be worth playing.

Actually good try, but combat was the best part, while the story was weak. Gambits allowed you to easily max out everyone and combat was incredibly simple. The story was VERY lame though.

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QFT! I actually love the battle system, its the very dry, crappy politcal story line that is keeping me from playing the last 10-ish hours of the game I have left. All my characters are lvl 46 and Im just not finding the will to finish the story... Im at the end and BARELY know whats going on. I swear, FFXIII better have a good story or else!

lol @ the whole loadingstation thing, i have both consoles and never noticed a discernable difference between loading times on cross platform titles. ( Don't ask, some mates have PS3's, some have 360's )

The 360 is a pile of shit anyway, and when it does load it sounds like a fricking washing machine. Add to the fact you have to pay to play online, have to fork out money to even use wireless... somehow i don't think PS3 users feel hard done by at all. It's just kinda dumb how Square are wasting these RPGs on 360 owners, whoever is in their marketing department needs to be fired.

And fyi, FF games have always had cack stories. The times when Square even bothered with a good plot died with Chrono and Vagrant Story

Stevo302 the fact that you think it is called the loadingstation because of load times in the games pretty much proves you don't own both. it refers to the crazy amount of time you have to wait while it installs. You sir are a PS3 troll as well and a complete idiot.

It cracks me up that there are still idiots out there trying to convince themselves that they didn't buy a turkey when they made the big mistake of buying their PS3

I thought these silly arguments would have died out by now as everyone knows now that the 360 won the console war?

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this year is definitely shaping out to be the PS3's strongest year there's like a 100 games coming out on ps3 that I'm excited for not alot for the 360 so far. don't get me wrong the 360 definitely has the stronger online community but still i think this will be the PS3's year for games but i doubt it will beat 360 in terms of online multiplayer though MAG is looking pretty awseome.

Tales of Vesperia sucks major testicles... I have tried play it and it put me to sleep....ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz...... I give it a 0/5..damn it.. what a waste of money.

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I'm guessing your not a Tales fan. Seriously this game is far from boring. Want to play a boring game that's a complete waste of money? Go play Final Fantasy XII. If thought Tales of Vesperia is boring, Final Fantasy XII will make you want to kill yourself.

Once again I'm unsure why PS3 or Xbox or Wii fanboyage is going on, but this game is pretty sweet. It is kind of true however that the Xbox360 seems to be the favorite... that's simple fact. While tge Wii sells a lot, a lot of people never really play it once they've bought it. PS3 fans will most likely stay with Sony and vice versa with Xbox fans. I personally like the Xbox 360 better. But, the PS2 was damn good. I'm not sure if it was better than Xbox, maybe a tie. The PS 1 however was the console of its age, plain and simple. It's also great to know that Xbox 360 gets some of those tasty PS3 exclusives, I.E. Final Fantasy 13 and Metal Gear Solid.... Good stuff. I want heavt rain though, but I'm not buying a PS3 for it. Oh, btw, if you like RPGs, maybe you should try Dragon Age: Origins. Great characters, great story, great romances. Everything's believable and fun. Combat stays fresh with the three different classes but using a bow is kind of boring. Magic is great. Try it! Oh, try Mass Effect, it's probably even better.

I pretty much thought that the ps3 was a second rate system solely because most of my friends had a 360 and I could play a bunch of good games on it. Then, I got a big check and bought a ps3. I actually play it more than my 360 now. Never thought that would happen.

I personally think that ToV is the best RPG on the system, beating out LO by a good amount, and I think that it definitely deserves a 9.0. It's the best RPG I've played in years, with memorable characters, a compelling story, and plenty of replay value. The reviewer agrees with me, and most of what he has to say is positive, yet he gave it an 8.2? I can't figure that out. ToV is the first RPG that I've finished in a long time, and not only did I finish it, I beat it again, and I'm working on my third run to finish all of the achievements. I think it deserves a little more than what this site gave it.

I personally think that ToV is the best RPG on the system, beating out LO by a good amount, and I think that it definitely deserves a 9.0. It's the best RPG I've played in years, with memorable characters, a compelling story, and plenty of replay value. The reviewer agrees with me, and most of what he has to say is positive, yet he gave it an 8.2? I can't figure that out. ToV is the first RPG that I've finished in a long time, and not only did I finish it, I beat it again, and I'm working on my third run to finish all of the achievements. I think it deserves a little more than what this site gave it.

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I couldn't agree more. The characters are fantastic, the story's structure has a fresh anime feel to it that I like a lot, and all of the new features of the battle system fit together quite nicely. The villains are also extremely awesome...especially Zagi. The main character, Yuri, is unlike any JRPG main character I've ever seen. I just recently beat the game for the second time a few weeks ago. It's really a great RPG that any Xbox 360 owner who likes RPGs and anime should own.

I have to say, I was skeptical at first seeing screenshots that looked somewhat cheesy, but then..

I would recommend this game to any RPG fan, this is so far one of the best (if not the best) RPG released on XBOX, and I don't remember last time I was into the game so much. Heh, it even beets some of my old favorites

Great example for others, and should make latest FF ashamed cry in the corner

Great game. Just spent the whole weekend playing this co-op with a buddy. I normally don't join in on the "Should have been X", but I probably would have rated it higher. But hey, it's just a number.

Highly recommend to anyone who likes anime and the old (good) Squaresoft RPG's like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and single-digit Final Fantasies. Puts FF13 to shame, that's for damned sure, which outscored it, might I add.

Beautiful game. The controls are a bit iffy at first but you grow into it after a while. The characters are wonderful--there's a fair bit of in game chatter that's quite fun at times. The game progresses smoothly, and there's really no need for annoying level-grinding. It's a very enjoyable RPG with good replay value. It's weak on the 3D front, but the pleasant cartoons and overall storyline combined with wonderful characters and decent voice-acting make "Tales of Vesperia" a very good JPRG.

I'm late to the game, but I, like many other people, hate the 3D battle system. It doesn't work as well as the 2D battle systems in previous "Tales of" games, and it doesn't look as good, either.

I gave the game a 3/5, but I might have been a little ignorant, because I only gave the game a few hours to become fun. Overall, it's a nice J-RPG, but as a game, you need to focus more on gameplay than story, and the game consisted of way too much dialogue, poorly timed animations and an old-school overworld map with very easy-to-avoid battles. For the most part, battles were too easy and required no skill, except the skill required to get used to the piss poor control scheme.

Im not even done with the game yet and I must say its tearing me up.. Cuz I loved Tales of the Abyss but this might just edge Abyss out. The characters is good ensemble of the right attitudes. Including the villains.. Who most of them happened to be really cool. Tales of Symphonia is up there as well for the titles and sidequests, but ToV has the ability to suck you in and not want to let yo out lol.. For me a decent 9.5/10!!!!!!!!!!!

I would just like to add that it is 2012 and I just popped this game in my Xbox and guess what? I still absolutely love it. This game is gorgeous. The characters are interesting, and only one can be slightly annoying at times but it fits with the story. I LOVE this game. It is amazing and IMO worthy of a much higher score than an 8.2. As far as jrpg OR a tales game this one is nearly perfect. Love love love it. Also, again IMO the game has a great and very satisfying ending. Ahh that felt good to say, lol.